RIL welcomes CAG’s view on audit

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), on Saturday, reiterated its stated position on CAG audit.

In a statement, it said, ``RIL has at no time contested the government’s right to conduct an audit by any agency, including the CAG, as provided in Section 1.9 of the Accounting Procedure of the PSC.’’ RIL had at all times fully co-operated with any auditor appointed by the government, including in several cases where the government had already exercised its audit rights earlier or where such audit was beyond the period stipulated in the PSC, the statement pointed out.

“We are private operators functioning under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC),’’ it said. Pointing to press statement made by the CAG, it said, ``We appreciate the fact that the CAG is in agreement that it does not conduct performance audit of private operators, and expect that no such performance-related audit issues applicable to the government will be applied to any such audit.”

``RIL is fully confident of its technical capabilities,’’ the statement asserted. ``RIL welcomes comments on operational matters if such comments come from experts having the requisite knowledge of the complexities of deep water operations in the oil and gas sector,” it went on to add.

It has been alleged that RIL has deliberately curtailed production from the KG gas fields to sell gas at high prices after 2014 when it will be free to fix the prices.